http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29325184 Test driving the smart electric 'carbike' [20141006]
[image http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78000000/jpg/_78000468_de27.jpg carbike ] Two students from the University of Toronto have developed a prototype electric vehicle for use within city areas. The car/bike hybrid can is connected to a smartphone and reach up to speeds of 20 miles per hour (32kph). BBC Click's Jen Copestake met up with the vehicle's developers in Toronto to take it for a test drive. [BBC © 2014] http://www.techvibes.com/blog/velometro-velocar-2014-10-11 A Hybrid Between Bike and Car, Could VeloMetro's Velocar Be the Future of Urban Transport? by Jennifer Hough yesterday Is it a bike? Is it a car? No, it’s a velocar, soon to be seen on the streets of Vancouver—for a trial period anyway. The future of urban transport, how to be sustainable (and beat traffic) in increasingly congested cities is a hot topic for citizens, politicians and environmentalists alike. A BC startup, VeloMetro, thinks it has the answer, and has designed a prototype velocar, a three-wheeled enclosed bicycle that functions like a car. It’s a 21st-century incarnation of a vehicle first designed in the 1930s. CEO of VeloMetro, John Stonier, said the aim is to get 50 of the vehicles on the road for a trial period in downtown Vancouver early next year. The velocar merges the best features from bicycles and cars offering undeniable advantages for urban mobility, Stonier contends. “People don’t want a car anymore—it’s expensive with registration and insurance—and are increasingly looking to car sharing. But you don’t need a big vehicle to transport people around downtown," he said. A velocar is legally classified as a bicycle, so users don't need a driver's licence. It is human-powered (using pedals), but has electric assist and a feature for managing hills and longer distances. Velocars protect their drivers from the weather and have basic cargo capacity, giving the comfort and functionality of an automobile. Stonier emphaised the safety aspect to the vehicle too. "They are low speed vehicles that can go as fast as an electric car: 30km an hour." They are designed for downtown streest and can go in bike lanes and shared lanes. "They are enclosed and will have safety features; you have a protective skin, and there is high visibility thanks to a reflective trim," Stonier said. The VeloMetro team came together over a common passion for electric vehicles and sustainable transportation. “All of us were into electric cars before Nissan and Tesla... we had already built them. We began to realize the car-sharing growth area," he says. Stonier says the finer details haven't been worked out yet, but the business model would work similar to a bike share scheme. "It’s all about getting getting people out of cars…it’s not about replacing bikes, its about replacing cars," he explains. "Cities love this idea because it dovetails with their plans for sustainability, it provides more transit options to people.” The venture already has funding from private investors and government. VeloMetro is currently part of Simon Fraser’s incubator support, VentureLabs, where it gets advice from business leaders and access to facilities. It’s also won a coveted place to pitch the idea to a room full of Silicon Valley investors at the end of the month. VERGE is a green business event series focusing on how technology accelerates sustainability solutions across industries and sectors. “We were selected with 12 or 14 companies to pitch in front of industry people, it's very good for broader exposure,” Stonier added. [© techvibes.com] http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/1182240/university-of-toronto-students-create-plug-free-electric-car-bike/ University of Toronto students create plug-free electric car-bike October 13, 2014 [image / Torstar News Service http://i0.wp.com/metronewsca.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/co-sojournlabs02.jpg Phil Lam, left, and Jonathan Lung have created a startup, Sojourn Labs, supported by U of T's Impact Centre. ] It’s a car! It’s a bike! No … it’s a plug-free electric hybrid prototype! OK, so they need to work on the name, but it’s a smart concept: a team of PhD candidates from the University of Toronto has created an electric pedal-powered car-bike that could help beat the traffic snarls that plague our city’s streets. “The project was inspired by my experiences commuting from Union Station,” co-creator Phil Lam says with a laugh. “But everybody’s experience is bad, right? Drivers get stuck in traffic. People who take public transit never get anywhere on time. Walking is pleasant, but it doesn’t take you very far … Cycling, if not outright dangerous, is certainly uncomfortable for a lot of reasons. Everybody’s suffering in their own way. The answer is reinterpreting how we get around.” Fitted with wires, bike parts and a few Tupperware containers, the prototype looks like a cross between a recumbent bicycle and a homemade sci-fi space pod. Within the lightweight aluminum chassis, however, are the seeds of a vision for healthier, happier, and more sustainable urban transport in increasingly dense cities. You charge the vehicle’s battery by pedalling. The intensity of pedalling controls its 500-watt engine’s throttle. The engine itself is fully programmable, which means that you can easily adjust the pedal-to-engine-power ratio. Rushing to an important meeting? Let the engine do most of the work, so you don’t show up sweaty. In need of a little exercise? Pedal the roughly 45-kilogram vehicle until you feel the burn. The three-wheeled vehicle is tall enough to be seen by other traffic, yet narrow enough to manoeuvre through congested streets. It even has a windshield to protect you from the elements and a small trunk for parcels and groceries. “We’ve built a prototype of a vehicle that tries to combine the benefits of driving a car with all the good things that come with riding a bicycle,” Lam says. “This vehicle will get you around in a way that has a minimal impact on the surrounding environment, infrastructure, and the people that you have to share the road with.” Lam and vehicle co-creator Jonathan Lung say that they complement each other beautifully: Lam, the team’s spokesperson, is finishing his PhD in industrial engineering, while Lung is finishing his in computer science. Their startup, Sojourn Labs, is supported by the University of Toronto’s Impact Centre — a cross-disciplinary institute that seeks to foster social entrepreneurship. It took Lung and Lam 18 months to design and build the prototype, and if they get the six-figure investment they’re pining for, the vehicle could be commercially available in the next year or two. The final product, they say, will have lights, a horn, a semi-enclosed cabin, a range of 30 to 40 kilometres and a maximum speed of 32 kilometres per hour. It will be completely smartphone-integrated, which means you’ll be able to control things such as pedal resistance and monitor charge levels and burned calories from your mobile device. They also hope to make a two-seater model, and the planned addition of a roof-mounted solar panel means the vehicle might never have to be plugged in. “You could leave this in front of your workplace at 9 o’clock in the morning, and even on a cloudy day, when you come back, chances are pretty good that the battery would be full enough to get you home,” Lam says. Legally speaking, the vehicle will be classified as an e-bike, which means it won’t require registration, a licence or insurance. And although they won’t divulge an exact cost, affordability is one of their main goals. Simply put, Lam says their creation is “good for the rider, good for the planet, and good for the city.” [© metronews.ca] ... http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/10/13/is_this_electric_carbike_the_answer_to_our_transit_woes.html Is this electric car-bike the answer to our transit woes? By: Daniel Otis Oct 13 2014 ... [images flash Sojourn Labs shows off it's plug free electric hybrid bike http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2014/10/13/is_this_electric_carbike_the_answer_to_our_transit_woes/car_bike.jpg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpg Phil Lam, left, and Jonathan Lung have created a startup, Sojourn Labs, supported by U of T's Impact Centre. It took them 18 months to design and build the prototype of their electric pedal-powered car-bike. / Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star ] ... [© Toronto Star] ... http://www.velometro.com/velocars.html Velocar For EVLN posts use: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html#nabble+template%2FNamlServlet.jtp%3Fmacro%3Dsearch_page%26node%3D413529%26query%3Devln%26sort%3Ddate http://www.columbiatribune.com/arts_life/pulse/falling-in-love-with-the-electric-elf/article_5de49dbd-0f46-56d2-aea7-26626ab3172d.html Falling in love with the human-electric hybrid elf nEV http://www.cartrade.com/car-bike-news/solar-powered-car-in-works-by-gurgaon-students-125626.html Solar 1seat EV in-works by Gurgaon.in students ts:50kph r:300+km ... http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Gurgaon-students-design-solar-powered-car/articleshow/44778883.cms + EVLN: $5k Gung-ho ex-IBMr creates EV3 etrike r:25mi ts:55mph {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-TorontoU-ca-students-Velocar-car-bike-human-hybrid-nEV-ts-32kph-tp4672104.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
